My trip to L.A.
I'm starting with writing this on my 5th day in L.A. I've changed opinion about this city about 20 times now, I think. It's just that everything is so different from what I know and how things are in Holland. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it. I'm really really frustrated about AOL, GOD that's a terrible internet provider! And what about these stupid people here at the reception that don't understand that I need a provider BEFORE I can browse with Explorer! "Huh... I just use Internet Explorer... Don't you have that?" Yes Ofcourse! You stupid person! But I need an account first! "Oh, but how do you do that at home?" I have ADSL (some dutch cable thing, but way faster)... "Oh, you won't be able to get it done then." So I called AOL and guess what. As a non-US-citizen, I can't get a free trial. noooo I need a Prepaid Internet account! I don't know what's wrong with these people and for me it's even strange you have to pay for dial-up internet. In Holland dial-up internet is free. You can go to any gasstation, bookstation or supermarket and find a cd of one of the free internet services. So you just put the cd in your laptop and you can go online! They don't need any creditcard, bankaccount, savingaccount or any other things from you. You can just fill in your hotel adress and you have internet. Just like that. But here... I'm really frustrated about it. (wow, can you tell?) ;)
But don't get me wrong, I love being here! (See that's why I'm changing my mind so often). This city has beautiful parts! I've been to Santa Monica, the boulevard there and the pier ofcourse! It's great, really great. And the 3th street prominade is great too, really cute. Being there gives me some Disneyland feeling. People in stores are really nice (I heard they could get fired if their not nice!) In Holland most of those people have these jobs just to get some money and really hate it and show that!
So yesterday (monday 23th) was the first day I had to work. It was a pressjunket of a series called Joan of Arcadia. I never heard of it before because it's in the first season here in the US. But it's coming to Holland so that makes it interesting for me to be there. I was thinking of Joan of Arc you know, the girl from France... but it's different. The girl can still talk to God, or God talks to her, asking her to do things for him, but it's not set in a war kind of thing. They all talk about it like it's a very intelligent show. The actors all had a lot to say and that girl Amber is really wellspoken. Do you guys know Joe Mantegna? He's pretty famous, had roles in Godfather III, Suspect, Celebrity, Up Close and Personal and The Money Pit. Anyways, he came up to me: "Hey! You're from Holland! I lived there for three months." He recognized my accent. Well it was pretty funny.
Today we're doing Days of Our Lives. It's a looooong going soapopera. I guess most of you have heard of it. I've never watched it though. Well doing that today. And tomorrow starting with some actors from The Bold and the Beautiful. Those are one on one intervies. A LOT better, I can tell you that. When you're doing one on one interviews you can ask more and get more. So I'm curious about how that will go :).
So funny because a good friend of mine he's in L.A. too and we went to Santa Monica yesterday. So we had a good time there! He's much fun to talk with, has a huge imagination and is still dreaming about becoming a star. Oh, we made pictures at the walk of fame at our star! ;-) I'll post it here.
Oh, I had this really small chance of getting into the FOX pressjunket for Angel after all, but it didn't work out :(. They're too strict there at FOX. There is this Israelian reporter here and she rather wanted to be at the Young and the Restless junket of Sony/Columbia then the Angel. So I thought that if I could go in her place, she could go to the Young and the Restless and I'd give her my audiofile by mail or cd (I have a digital voicerecorder). She liked the plan but it couldn't succeed because of the strictness of Fox. So that's really too bad :((. IF Angel continues after all, if it gets picked up by some other station, maybe next year :)...
Damn, I feel so lost without my internet connection, it's terrible!
It's Wednesday now, the 25th. After searching the whole morning yesterday for an internet cafe, I finally was able to get access to the internet in a library for 40 minutes. Did you know how terrible it is to have no internet, it's like you're cut off from the world. I never knew I was this addicted. Okay, so mostley I miss Ruben and want to be able to chat and mail with him... but also, updating this site, going to the forums, doing all kinds of things.. yeah, damn. I miss it!
Okay, so what did we do? Yesterday we had a chat with Deirdre and Drake from The Days. Then we went up the hill to have a view over the city, and wow, that's great. I knew L.A. was big, but that it's that big...! Well, when we were up the the hill enjoying the view, we got a phonecall that we could meet Jennifer Finnigan ASAP for an interview. So we hurried to the Four Seasons Hotel to do the interview and she's great. She's such a lovely person! We had an hour interview which was going great. Do you know her? She played Bridget on The Bold & The Beautifull and recently switched to Crossing Jordan.
After the interview we had dinner at an Italian restaurant in The Grove. A new place in L.A. that's just like Disneyland. I was like: Where is Mickey?
Today I started with an interview with Lorenzo Lamas and after a long time waiting I had a very quick interview with Jack Wagner. Both nice man, really experienced, so I had to be really allert to make sure I'd get a story. I think it went fine, but not as good and great as Jennifer. Well in the end it will all be good I guess. Tomorrow we're doing a home photoshoot and interview at Sean Kanan's. He's playing Deacon at The Bold. And after that we're having a presjunket with The Shield. I'm curious, I really don't know that show. Later on the day we're meeting people from Holland. There's Dutch movie nominated for an Oscar, so I'm doing an interview with one of the main characters. But that will be not tomorrow but probably this weekend. Well, keep you informed (although you'll be reading this after I get back, unless I get my internet connection here after all...)
It's friday! :) Yay weekend! Too bad I still haven't been able to connect my laptop to the internet... well whatever. I gave up you know. It's just a few days. So yesterday we did a house report at Sean Kanan's. He plays Deacon at The Bold. Then we had a pressconference with The Shield. Today I had a interview with Adrienne Frantz, that went really great!
Update!
Okay, doing this out of my memory now... Glad I already had a lot! :))
So about Adrienne Frantz Here you can find the picture (yes, her hair is black now!). This interview went really really well! I originally had about 20 minutes, but we talked for almost an hour! (58 mins). So that means she liked it too. She talked about her boyfriend (John Rzeznik, frontman of the Goo Goo Dolls) with whom she's together for 5,5 years now! And she has never been that open before, I think at least. I mean I have NEVER read an interview with her about all that stuff. At most sites it's questioned IF they're still together, but they are :)! So that was really great and felt good. I've written the article already and I believe it's a good one!
So after Adrienne we had nothing to do, erm, what did we do? I believe we went to Venice Beach (which is really nice!!!) and I forgot to say we had the Pressconference of the Foreign Language Film first, in the morning, in Hollywood. I interviewed Thekla Reuten there for Glossy magazine. It's been publised already!
Saturday evening we had a party because of the Dutch Oscar nomination. The party was at the house of the Dutch Consul and it was a really great party! You wanna know who were there? Well ofcourse The Dutch nominees BUT also Rutger Hauer! And I talked with him for a view minutes! Okay, for those who don't know him, he's a Dutch famous Moviestar who's one of the few (besides Jeroen Krabbe and Famke Janssen) that made it in Hollywood! So I was really entousiastic about it. And it was thanx to Max Westerman, a Dutch newscorrespondent to a channel here. :)
It was a great party anyways because I met a girl who's practising Kung Fu for many years. I'm doing Pencak Silat (an Indonesian fighting sports) so we talked for over an hour and hopefully I'll see her next time we're in L.A. and maybe we can exersice a bit on Venice Beach :D. All in all great fun there!
Sunday I did not very much, but in the end of the day we went to the oscar party of the Dutch nomenees. Those who couldn't go to the actual party, came to this one. There was great food and it was a fun party! Too bad the Dutch movie didn't win (Twinsisters), but it was expected that the Canadian movie would win. They had had a lot more publicity and all.
Monday... Last day! We were supposed to do a session with Char, the medium. But it was canceled due to some medical problems. (she's okay now!). Soooo.... I had the day of and watched Buffy! I bought season 2 and 4 on dvd here in the states and had it with me so I watched Beer Bad and some other and had great fun! I actually like Beer Bad now! Funny huh! :)
Tuesday... So we went to the airport early to try to get good seats and it worked! Slept for only 2 hours on the 11 hour flight... but hey, Here I am! And sooo happy to be back with Ruben :D I missed him! And yay! Internet! ;-))
